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Topic: Are we doomed? (Read 10934 times)

No, we are not. The form of thinking by itself is religious. It doesn't exist. Doomsday, Apocalypse...The End Times...etc. It doesn't mean anything. Humans have been thinking and talking about it since they are able to perform those acts. They kinda love to fantasise on their own death.

World orders get set and then they collapse and gets set again and again. Human civilisation is so new and tiny, we don't have the proper espression to describe it. So it will always be very new. It can perish because of itself or some other catastrophie or go on in very different ways. Our whole existence is barely momentary in our made up time scale.

In any way, considering the scale of nature; the universe keeps creating-recreating itself consantly in a scale our minds can't even remotely -remotely, remotely...- grasp, we are so indescribably insignificant as an event, it is just mindbreakingly boring to speculate on how it is gonna end or if it is gonna learn.

Then the question should be: is it going to be our own doing? As Mammalians we are no exception to the rule of temporary existence, but are we bringing on our own demise? Hawkins gives Earth less than a thousand years. That's a flicker in geological terms. If we don't nuke ourselves to extinction, we will run out of finite resources. Not to mention natural disasters like a meteorite, volcanoes or earthquakes. Can we evolve in time to forego superstition, greed and tribal sentiments? In time to plunder other planets and maybe even relocate? Maybe instead of spending trillions to 'defend' ourselves from our own species, we should invest heavily in technology that allows us to continue our existence in case of a catastrophe. (The universe doesn't care one way or another and would be better off without us anyway.) But I am continuously surprised by the apathy displayed when it comes to preparation for events outside our control, like natural disasters. Our survival instinct is misdirected by concentrating on humans for the source of destruction.

I like to wish all fellow posters a happy Festivus and belated solstice! Health and happiness always!

« Last Edit: December 25, 2016, 10:49:59 AM by reasonist »

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Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocitiesVoltaire

"In the long run, we are all dead" is a truism that tends to prevent action. "In the short run, I still have to hunt mammoth" is much more motivational.

People who live in the future, or the past, aren't alive today. Be alive today.

Big issue thinking, only works if you are a world leader, and have totalitarian powers. People idly waste their time, imagining what it would be like, how much better it would be, if they were a world leader.

We are not doomed. Unless Trump starts WWIII. Then we are. He could. Or couldn't. Depends on his tweets. And Putin. Or N Korea. Or Pence. Who knows. Anyway, I'm not building bomb shelter. Who wants to live after WWIII?

We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the young for a long long time."PZ Myers

Yeah ... biology isn't too important, compared to political/economics ;-( I remember the first Earth Day ... and we don't even celebrate it any more. The D-party could have gone Left with McGovern, but instead triangulated into a R-me-too party under the Clintons.

I've said it a hundred times. We're fucked. Why? Because we're people and we fuck shit up, its what we do.

And yet we've soldiered on for hundreds of thousands of years. The current flail is just a ripple on that pond.

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We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the young for a long long time."PZ Myers

We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the young for a long long time."PZ Myers

We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the young for a long long time."PZ Myers

For some reason I have that song and the Purple People Eaters connected. If I think of one, I automatically think of the other. One of life's mysteries.

Nope, they were contemporaries on the radio back in the day. Easy association to make.

"Running Bear" and "Sink the Bismark", same-same.

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We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the young for a long long time."PZ Myers